AN: This a CYOA for my patrons. I usually write stories that are purely smut but I decided to try out something different. If you want a vote to influence this story, you can google my penname and check out becoming my Patron.
Harry watched Hermione fiddle with the flimsy-looking clothes on the table. He knew that they were more than they seemed, but a muggle would think that the clothes were for one of those dress-up meetings that Harry saw in London a few years ago. Comic-con, Harry thought it was called.
But what Hermione had on the table might be some of the most extraordinary magical artifacts ever made. The fact that she created them herself was a cherry on top. Everyone knew that Hermione was bright in school. Still, nobody expected that the things she would do would be so revolutionary.
It started when Hermione had somehow created an artifact powerful enough to scan any object within the asteroid belt. For what reason would she have to make it, you ask? Just a passing fancy with all things related to the muggle sci-fi movies.
Hermione spent the next two years searching for anything interesting on the celestial bodies in the device's range, only with her spare time, of course. Not even Hermione expected anything to be discovered, but she actually came across something stunning on Mars that nearly broke her mind.
Magic existed outside of Earth.
Thus began her crusade to gather resources and people to find out what it could possibly be. Obviously, It all failed miserably. After all, what respectable wizard or witch would want to go to another planet? They didn't even know how to get to the moon!
Of course, there were a small number of people interested in helping, but they had neither the power nor the will to take on such a difficult task.
This was where Harry came in. He knew that Hermione only avoided asking him for help so he could live in peace after the second blood war, but the silly witch forgot that she was his best friend. They had been through life and death battles together, and their friendship had lasted for decades, so what was a little jaunt to the Red Planet in comparison?
All of that had ended with both of them standing in Harry's manor a year after Hermione asked for Harry's help. When she initially came to him, Harry had opened up the Black and Potter libraries, along with his vault, giving Hermione an extensive knowledge base and unlimited money to do what she needed.
What Harry got in return was two miracles. Even if this Mars business ended as a dud, this… overpowered portkey and the nearly invulnerable clothing artifact would be world-changing.
"Let me get this straight, Hermione. This… glowy cube thing is taking us to Mars, and those," Harry pointed at the clothes that Hermione was still working on, "will let us survive on Mars?"
With a long-suffering sigh, Hermione replied, "For the thousandth time, yes, Harry. Is it really so hard to believe that?"
"… It's been a YEAR! And you already figured out interplanetary travel! You know, with all the ill-advised things Ron has said about you over the years, he was right about you being a tad scary."
Hermione shot Harry a nasty glare for mentioning the red-headed arse.
"Oh, come on, Hermione. It's been almost ten years! You'll have to forgive him eventually!"
Hermione ignored him and flicked her wand over the clothing, causing the runes infused into them to glow blindingly before settling back down. Whatever that was supposed to do apparently worked since Hermione turned to Harry with sparkling eyes.
"If you're quite done talking about useless wizards, Harry. Everything's ready to proceed."
Harry trusted Hermione with his life, but he couldn't stop the pang of anxiety when she said that. They were about to leave Earth, the only planet that could host life, to go to a hellhole literally named after a god of war.
"Ah yes… excellent," Harry paused while staring warily at Hermione, "Are you sure we can't hire someone for this?"
Hermione put her hands on her hips and scoffed, "Honestly, Harry! I made these artifacts specifically for our bodies. No other witch or wizard could hope to use them without exhausting themselves in under 5 minutes! They'd all be dead within moments of arriving!"
"That doesn't really bring comfort to me, Hermione," Harry said before taking a deep breath to calm himself.
"I just have to look at it like it's another adventure… like in our school days. Right?"
Hermione gave Harry a patronizing pat on the cheek, "Whatever helps you get a move on, Man-Who-Conquered."
Harry watched her walk away to change into the clothes she made and muttered, "I always hated that one the most… what the hell did I even conquer?"
Vanishing the clothes on his body, Harry picked up the delicate-looking clothes Hermione had left for him. He knew the miracle Hermione pulled off with a creation like this. Still, their destination made Harry question everything that was supposed to help them survive.
Harry was more of a power-over-books type of wizard, but Hermione's goal had made him do a little research on the dangers of Mars.
What he found wasn't pretty. Radiation, Freezing temperatures, lack of drinking water, and all of those problems were only a worry if you somehow were able to breathe in the first place.
If Harry knew all that, Hermione was sure to comprehend far more and accounted for all of the issues. Harry slipped on the artifact, and it automatically molded tightly around his body. Harry felt it immediately start to draw on his magic as the runes hummed to life with a soft illuminating glow.
He looked down in amazement at the constantly flowing lines of light. Harry was pretty sure that he had never seen any Runes that looked quite like this before.
"Oh good, you're ready."
Looking up, Harry saw Hermione striding towards him in the same form-fitting clothes. If they weren't about to go on a potentially suicidal adventure, Harry would have taken a bit more time to appreciate Hermione's fit body. Instead, he said, "Refresh me again on how this is supposed to work."
Giving him a brisk nod, Hermione explained, "What you see right now is the base form of the artifact. The defense of last resort, if you will. It'll last long enough to give us time to activate the portkey and return to Earth."
"I added voice commands to activate and deactivate its features. I used Latin instead of English… didn't really want to die a stupid death if we said a word by mistake."
Harry nodded and gestured towards the glowing portkey, "And what about this? Does it still have the extra charge?"
"None of the magic it absorbed over the past few months dissipated," Hermione said confidently. "It still has enough power to transport us between Earth and Mars more than ten times."
They both fell silent, slowly realizing the history they would soon be making. The muggles had been planning to go to Mars for decades now, and all they had on the red planet were a few robots plus a couple of satellites. A great accomplishment for sure, but nowhere near what Harry and Hermione were about to do.
Harry steeled his nerves and spoke the activation word.
"Armis"
Feeling a greater pull on his magic, beams of light formed around his body, leaving behind a deep black armor with glowing blue lines, looking more like the futuristic space suits that Harry had seen in muggle movies. A transparent material covered his face, completely shutting him off from the environment outside his suit. It was a bit disconcerting, having all sound cut off instantly. Hermione did try to have the sound be able to filter in from the outside without weakening the protections, but that would be something to look for in the future. If they survived this.
Harry also noticed a heavier toll on his magic to sustain this form of the artifact. Nothing that Harry would care about, but still noticeable.
Feeling that everything was working as it should, Harry gave Hermione a thumbs up, smiling as he watched Hermione activate her own.
A few moments later, Hermione spoke into Harry's suit, "Can you hear me, Harry?"
"Loud and clear."
"Brilliant, I want to stress that if ANYTHING feels out of place when we arrive, we WILL return immediately."
Harry gave her a nod, "You'll get no arguments from me there, Hermione."
"Good," Hermione said while picking up the glowing cube. Harry followed her out of his manor, walking to the middle of his manor's quidditch pitch.
They looked at each other, excitement and nervousness clearly seen on both their faces as they clasped the cube together.
At Hermione's nod, Harry took a deep breath, "Portus."
Neither Harry nor Hermione lost their focus when nothing happened. It was to be expected. Traveling a distance of this magnitude would not be typical, plus Harry could feel the magic churning inside the cubic portkey. And not long after, a beam of light shot up into the sky, breaking through the clouds and distorting the ancient wards around the Potter manor.
Looking at each other in alarm at the unexpected reaction, they helplessly watched as a large part of the quidditch grounds collapsed, as if a sinkhole had formed directly underneath. A split second after the devastation, the two disappeared into the stream of light shooting up in the sky.
A few miles away, popping sounds could be heard as multiple magicals arrived by apparition to investigate the shockwave.
A red-robed wizard shouted, "Dear Merlin… what in heavens is that!"
Harry and Hermione didn't even get a chance to think of the devastation left in their wake. After being drawn into the beam of light, they instantly appeared tens of meters above a desolate pale-red desert.
"No magic!" Hermione yelled out as they plummeted towards the martian ground.
That was easier said than done as Harry instinctively wanted to cast charms to slow his fall. But Hermione had beaten into his head about how vital conserving his strength was. Harry was basically a magical battery that Hermione could tap into if everything went to hell.
Harry mentally prepared himself, getting ready for a bone-jarring landing when he was a few meters away from the ground. Luckily, all of those precautions went to waste when Harry bounced off the red soil, like it was a trampoline, and lightly landed back on his feet.
Clearing his throat in embarrassment, Harry looked at Hermione to see her look at him knowingly, "You forgot the suit would protect you… didn't you?"
Ignoring that statement, Harry looked around the landscape. Even though the Martian land around him could be found to be similar to a desert on Earth, a glance at the sky would immediately clue anyone that this wasn't Earth. There was a sick yellow-colored sky instead of the beautiful blue that Harry was used to. It almost reminded him of sulfur fumes, truly fitting for such a hellish place.
Harry shook his head and turned back to Hermione, seeing her fiddling with the cubic portkey. He briefly had a bone-chilling thought of the portkey failing, "Is there something wrong?"
"No, it's working as it should…," Hermione looked at him with furrowed brows, "Did you notice that no time had passed from when we left Earth to when we arrived?"
"Is that a problem?"
"It takes light about four minutes to travel from Earth to Mars. We just did that instantly… even on Earth, portkeys aren't instant."
Harry loved Hermione's curiosity. He really did, but he didn't have the patience to listen to her ramble right now. Harry didn't mention how his manor was most likely obliterated by the portkey when they left, and he didn't feel like Hermione should get the option to be distracted either, "Maybe you save that thought for later? Not sure if you noticed, but we're on another planet right now. Let's do what we came here for and get the hell back home."
"Ah, sorry, Harry," Hermione said while pulling a compass-like device out of her mokeskin pouch. They spent the next couple hours walking the monotonous Martian land. Blindly following the direction the compass was indicating before Hermione stopped and looked at what looked to be a sizable frozen lake of ice in the distance.
"All the readings point towards that ice."
Harry looked on warily, almost expecting a giant worm monster to pop out and eat them.
"Let's get closer!"
Grumbling as he followed Hermione, Harry once again wondered why he supported her insanity. And why the hell didn't they bring transport with them? They didn't dare to try and apparate due to the danger of doing so on a NEW planet, so they were stuck walking around. Thankfully, Hermione had programmed the portkey to arrive on Mars relatively close to where she discovered the anomaly.
They arrived at the edge of the frozen lake before Hermione's compass started to spin out of control, "We should be standing right on top of it."
"That's nice," Harry said, before continuing sarcastically, "Let me just call the construction crew real quick to dig into the ice."
Hermione ignored Harry and looked at a large bump at the edge of the frozen lake. She had a feeling that what she was looking for was under there. Or it might be wishful thinking since that feeling was based on the fact that the rest of the ice was relatively smooth. Hermione really had nothing else to go on.
Pointing to it, Hermione said, "We have to get under that."
"That should be fairly simple," Harry said, walking closer to the spot Hermione was pointing at, "A little bit of fire should do the trick."
However, when Harry raised his arm to cast the fire spell, Hermione slapped his arm back down, "Did you forget that we aren't on Earth anymore? There isn't enough oxygen in the air for fire!"
Glaring at Hermione, Harry waved his hands at the ice, vanishing it from the spot completely. Any frustration left Harry when he saw what was revealed by his actions.
There was zero chance that this could occur naturally. It was clearly a construct that looked to be an entrance, built by beings of intelligence. Intelligence that did not include the humans or the few sentient magical species that lived on Earth. They knew that this might always be a possibility, but actually seeing proof of alien life was far different than theory.
Hermione stepped toward the door and conducted a few tests, "The metal is nothing that I can recognize. But its age is at least 50,000 years old."
That age once again put Harry on full alert, "That doesn't seem that long for a species that can travel the stars."
"I would agree, but nothing has disturbed this area for just as long," Hermione looked back at Harry, "Whatever built this has long since abandoned it."
Staring at the alien entrance, Harry asked, "Why haven't the muggles discovered this yet? They have a few satellites in orbit and rovers all over the surface. Was this thing hidden by magic?"
"Those rovers can't survive here, Harry. Look around, it's cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide into ice. Their computer systems would die soon after entering this area."
Harry, who thought the ice was made of water this whole time, kept his mouth shut. He was sure Hermione mentioned this before, but he obviously forgot. No need to admit it and allow Hermione to nag him about it on another planet.
"As for the satellites," Hermione continued, "I can only guess that the frozen carbon dioxide stopped any deep scans. I doubt magic has anything to do with it."
Harry nodded, taking Hermione's words as fact. They briefly stood by the entrance, indecision clearly in their expression before Harry said, "Might as well go in, Hermione. This is what we came here for."
Hermione agreed, and together they slowly opened the doors into the alien building with their magic. Looking into the dark opening, Hermione commented, "Looks like this goes underground."
"Brilliant. Now it feels like we're the spacefaring Indiana Jones and Lara Croft. Uncovering the secrets of the alien tombs," Harry stated dryly.
Hermione laughed in agreement as they headed into the dim entrance. Harry briefly stopped to cast some wards to block the sight of any muggle scanners before closing the door shut. No need to make them panic at a random building appearing on Mars.
"What the hell is this place," Harry whispered as he looked around the deserted alien base. Hermione had discovered that the air inside was breathable, and the temperature was perfect for humans. In an effort to save their magical energy for emergencies, they both reduced most of the protections on their suit. One benefit was that they could now hear the sounds outside their helmet.
It looked as if the previous residents had left in a hurry. Leaving half repaired spaceships in the hanger and strange-looking screens that displayed odd symbols. That was another mystery Hermione couldn't explain. How were these things working after being abandoned for more than fifty thousand years?
Even after disregarding all of this, Harry felt something that pulsed with power deeper in the base. It's as if there was a sleeping giant that was experiencing the last few moments of life. Hermione was convinced that they were in no danger since the pulses were almost like clockwork. She thought that whatever it was, this behavior was normal for it.
And so they moved deeper underground until they reached a room with thick metal shielding around a bright glowing orb of pulsing light. It looked as if there was a miniature sun that was held in containment.
What stunned them further was that they could feel that it was almost purely magical power condensed into a visible ball. The number of magicals that would need to be culled to form this abomination would have been countless.
Harry whispered, "Tell me that there could be another way to make this Hermione. Tell me millions of magicals didn't need to die for this."
Before Hermione could respond, a tall, triangle-headed bipedal creature was projected into the room. Harry tried to banish the alien into the wall by instinct, but his spell passed through the floating figure harmlessly.
Realizing that this wasn't a physical being, Harry let his guard down a little while observing what the alien was doing. If Harry went by human cues, it looked like it was trying to communicate with them. But for all he knows, this could be the way for the alien to threaten to destroy them.
This was more in Hermione's area of expertise, "Hermione? You don't happen to have invented a trusty translation device, right?"
Hermione, who was busy gaping at the hologram, ignored him. For the next hour, Harry had to sit and watch Hermione teach this alien English. Not very comforting when he was surrounded by raw magical power.
"Harry, Look! It can speak now!"
"Good evening, Humans. I am Perceive, a Prothean VI."
Huh... First, the Americans gave all the bad guys the British accent in their movies, and now an alien has it too. Harry hoped this one didn't turn out bad. He really didn't feel like dying in this forgotten place.
Deciding to be friendly, Harry said, "Hello there, lovely day for a meeting between species, isn't it?"
"I do not agree, human," Harry tensed, expecting an attack. "It is currently inhabitable on this planet. It could be changed after terraforming to make it 'lovely,' but my people didn't find any value in doing so."
Harry felt a little foolish. The alien had just learned English, so everything spoken to it would be taken in the literal meaning, "Ah… right. So why were your people on this planet? And who are your people?"
"We would be called the Protheans in your language. This base was set up to observe your ancestors when they first started to show potential to evolve beyond a primitive society."
Hermione piped up at this, "So you treated us like a zoo?"
"A zoo. A place to observe wild animals," Perceive stated, "I find that word quite accurate."
Harry could see Hermione about to explode in anger, but the VI's following sentence completely deflated her, "Your species was near extinction after a Mass Drive core malfunctioned, and its fuel fell onto your homeworld. My people decided to place an observation post here to prevent such accidents in the future."
"Fuel? What kind of fuel can kill off an entire species?" Harry asked.
"There is no word that can name the fuel in your language, but the simplest explanation is that the fuel can manipulate the mass of objects. It was not just your species that was threatened. It was every living thing on your planet. One of the reasons this base exists was to observe the strange reaction to the fuel that some species had."
"I believe some of your primitive ancestors were calling it magic."
The two earthlings stood there, stunned into silence. They found out why the magical society existed, and it wasn't because of a curious god or even genetic experiments. It was a space version of an oil spill that somehow created them. The reason that magic existed was because of an accident from what sounded like a starship.
Hermione was able to accept this far faster than Harry and move on, "What is that glowing ball?" She asked, pointing at the pulsing ball of magic.
"That is an experimental Mass Effect core. The recent data tells me that it will run for another three hundred years before destabilizing. It currently supplies the power to the base and my VI core, keeping the oxygen and temperature at an acceptable level. I recommend servicing the core before failure."
Hermione muttered a thank you before moving to stand next to Harry. She expected him to be brooding but instead found him staring intensely at the Mass Effect core.
"Just think, Hermione," Harry said with an awed tone, "Our society was created by a fuel that let aliens travel the stars. If we can harness this power, we can lift humanity to new heights!"
"Even muggles can eventually use magic if we can replicate what happened to create us!"
Hermione knew that Harry only saw the good side of this, "Don't forget what Perceive said, our planet was almost erased of all life by this thing. If we hand this over to any of the governments on Earth right now, it will be a disaster."
"Who said that we would be handing anything over?"